Given that the concept of a third WWE brand was given the green light by
Vince McMahon almost eight weeks ago, one could've hoped for a much more
applicable pay-per-view title than "ECW One Night Stand". After all, for
Extreme Championship Wrestling, this is a new beginning, and far from an
end.

Beginning this Tuesday, live on the Sci-Fi channel in the United States,
ECW joins Raw and Smackdown as another part of the WWE's stranglehold on
American pro wrestling. Paul Heyman -- who, it must be noted, has limited
power within ECW despite his deep history with the company -- has claimed
that ECW will have a new direction under top star Kurt Angle. It is said
that the Olympic Gold medallist will still be extreme, but more in the
manner of Taz than Tommy Dreamer.

Having been announced to limited fanfare on WWE television, the fortunes
of ECW would be easier assessed following One Night Stand. A title win for
either Sabu or, more likely, Rob Van Dam, would encourage fans to tune in to
the inaugural ECW TV show, at a time when the WWE will be desperate to make
a good impression.

Setting the tone for the evening's proceedings, the first visual of
tonight's event was simply that of a raucous Hammerstein Ballroom crowd,
seemingly all of whom were engaged in a chant of "ECW". This only changed
when Paul Heyman entered the ring, and the fans appreciation manifested
itself in chants of "Thank you Paul E.!"

"This didn't happen because of me," said Heyman, "and it didn't happen
because of Vince McMahon. This happened because of you. And on behalf of
every single one of us, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you,
thank you!"

Match #1: Tazz vs Jerry "The King" Lawler

Although he emerged for his contest with "The King" in his trademark
orange and black colours, and complete with head-towel, it was rather
noticeable that instead of his usual ECW-era ring attire, that Tazz entered
the squared circle wearing full-length training pants and a large shirt. I
guess that five years as an announcer on Smackdown isn't the ideal
preparation for an athletic contest.

The crowd's hatred of Lawler was emphatic, which was unsurprising
considering he has a very real dislike of what he calls "Extremely Crappy
Wrestling". This was only heightened when Lawler approached Joey Styles at
the announce table and slapped him hard across the face.

Styles -- and his spectacles -- soon recovered however, and just as Lawler
and Tazz were about to lock up, Styles jumped Lawler from behind and
attempted to apply a sleeperhold. Lawler was able to subdue him before
setting him up for a piledriver, at which point Tazz entered the fray,
locking on the Tazmission for a startlingly-quick thirty second win.

Winner: TazzMatch Rating: 5 / 10 (for what was essentially an angle)

Match #2: Randy Orton vs Kurt Angle

Watching Randy Orton work the crowd so brilliantly here, it is hard to
fathom that the WWE even considered placing him as their top babyface in
2004. Orton's smug demeanour -- all too real behind the scenes, it is said --
created tremendous heat among this already pro-Angle crowd, and it was only
when Angle aggressively took Orton to the mat that the St. Louis native's
arrogant smile was broken.

The Olympic Gold medallist dominated on the ground until he missed a
running shoulder-tackle, propelling himself into the ringpost. Rather than
take a more effective advantage, however, Orton decided to lock on a rear
chinlock for loud chants of "Boring!" which were soon silenced when Angle
caught him with a series of German suplexes.

The new ECW star then managed to hit the Angle Slam for a two count,
before Orton hit a beautiful Neck Cracker after reversing an ankle lock
attempt. The match was red hot by this point, as Orton continued to evade
the ankle lock, and even hit a beautiful top rope crossbody which Angle
rolled through for the near fall. Going for his submission finisher once
again, Angle managed to fully apply the ankle lock, and gained the tapout
victory.

"Welcome back!" was the message to Tajiri from the ECW faithful upon his
entrance to the ring, and clearly it was he and his former nemesis Super
Crazy who were the crowd favourites in this contest. The match began with
some nice wrestling by Crazy and Mamaluke -- including a short-arm scissors
and a key-lock held with a bridge -- but things took a more familiar ECW turn
when both Crazy and Tajiri hit baseball slides into the corner on Mamaluke
and Guido respectively.

The babyfaces continued to control the match -- including a beautiful Asai
moonsault by Crazy onto both his opponents -- until the towering Big Guido
pulled Crazy outside the ring and put the boots to him. He soon recovered
however, and when Tajiri got the hot tag he immediately dominated, hitting
his patented springing back elbow off the ropes on both men. But when Crazy
was propelled into the crowd by Little Guido, the FBI ganged up on "The
Japanese Buzzsaw", hitting him with a double Muscle Buster for the pin.

After the match, Big Show entered the fray and cleared the ring, hitting
Mamaluke with a painful-looking Cobra Clutch into a backbreaker. Despite his
booking as ECW's monster, Big Show looked out of place, and the crowd were
reluctant to cheer the him after he disposed of favourites Crazy and
Tajiri.

Winners: The FBIMatch rating: 6.5 / 10

A little over a week after announcing on his radio show that he was
finished with wrestling, JBL made a surprise appearance to rip on ECW. He
made reference to his pummeling of The Blue Meanie on last year's show, and
referred to himself as "The King of Hardcore", all to a tremendous heel
reaction. He also announced that he was the new colour commentator for
Smackdown.

Match #4, World Heavyweight Title match: Sabu vs Rey Mysterio ( c )

Mysterio received a light heel reaction for this championship match with
Sabu, who came to the ring with a nasty-looking bruise on the left side of
his face. The chair which Sabu brought to the ring with him played an
important role in the beginning of the match, as the challenger hit an Air
Sabu in the corner, before simply throwing the chair at Smackdown's
champion, striking him in the head.

For his own part, Mysterio hit a beautiful huricanrana and a moonsault
press, before falling victim to a guillotine legdrop from the second rope.
In between setting up a number of tables at ringside, Sabu hit an Arabian
Facebuster for a near-fall, but his setting up of the ladders backfired on
him as Mysterio launched himself onto the top rope, delivering a Thesz press
which took Sabu through the table.

After recovering, Sabu hit an impressive triple-jump moonsault, and then
evaded another Thesz press which sent Mysterio crotch-first into a chair.
The Sheik's famous nephew then lay Mysterio onto a ringside table and
attempted to score with a triple-jump somersault splash over the top rope
and on to Mysterio. Just as Sabu was rebounding off the ropes however,
Mysterio made it to his feet and instead Sabu caught him with a DDT which
drove his head not only through the table, but also hard onto the floor as
well.

At this point, with both men down, a doctor came to ringside and declared
the match over. The crowd were not amused, which was unsurprising
considering that while this was a nasty bump, the finish was so obviously
contrived.

Winner: No ContestMatch Rating: 7 / 10

Match 5: Mick Foley & Edge vs Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer

WHAT YOU THINK

What did you think of ECW One Night Stand?
It was great 37%
It was okay 19%
It sucked 9%
Didn't see it 34%

Given that the singles match between Edge and Foley at Wrestlemania
contained the ultimate hardcore weapon in the flaming table, it was
concerning that this match would be expected to top it. Foley came to the
ring first, with a shocking-looking black eye, courtesy of "The Funker" on
last week's edition of RAW. Before the match got underway, Foley worked the
crowd up into even more of a frenzy, claiming that he did once have respect
for ECW, when they "were run by a visionary and owned by a true creative
genius". He wasn't, of course, referring to Paul Heyman, but Stephanie
McMahon, and at that, even Taz couldn't stop himself from laughing
loudly.

Funk and Dreamer were accompanied to the ring by Beulah McGullicutty, who
suggested that they make this match a three-on-three encounter. Lita agreed
to the challenge with a slap to her female opponent, and the match began.
Dreamer and Funk sent the heels scurrying to the outside with shots from a
trash can and a metal sign, and Dreamer hip-tossed Edge into a ladder which
"The R-rated Superstar" himself had set up in the corner.

As Funk went for the oldest moonsault in the business on Foley, though,
Edge pushed the ladder down and Funk took a nasty bump to the canvas. With
"The Funker" incapacitated, Edge and Foley grabbed a board wrapped in barbed
wire from under the ring, and suplexed it onto Dreamer. As the capacity
crowd chanted "We Want Fire!" Foley wrapped barbed wire around his fist and
raked it grotesquely across the forehead and eyes of Funk. Rekindling
memories of his classic Empty Arena bout with Jerry Lawler, Funk was taken
to the back screaming "My God Mick, my eye!"

This left Dreamer virtually defenceless against the heels, and as they
ganged up on him, Foley then went for the Socko Claw, but instead applied it
to Beulah until Dreamer made the save. Dreamer was soon struck with an Edge
Spear however, and it seemed like he would take the fall until Funk
returned, through the crowd, clutching a 2x4 encased in barbed wire. After
striking Foley and Edge, Funk then set the 2x4 on fire, blasting Foley
again, who not only landed on the barbed wire board at ringside, but whose
flaming shirt had to be quickly put out by a ringside attendant. Edge pushed
Funk off the apron and down on top of Foley, before being caught himself
with a DDT by Dreamer, who then locked on an STF, using the barbed wire
against Edge's face. Lita broke up the hold, however, and when Edge
recovered and blindsided Dreamer, Beulah entered the ring to prevent more
damage being inflicted on him. She was then Speared by Edge for the
pinfall.

Winners: Mick Foley, Edge & LitaMatch rating: 8 / 10

Match #6: Balls Mahoney vs Masato Tanaka

An all-out brawl was what was expected in this match, and that is exactly
what Mahoney and Tanaka served up. After the obligatory "Balls!" chants as
Mahoney threw repeated jabs at Tanaka, the two took it to the outside where
Mahoney borrowed a fan's beer to throw in his opponent's face. Back in the
ring, Tanaka hit a superplex for a big bump, before the roles were reversed
and Balls hit his own version of the move. Soon, the two found themselves
duelling with steel chairs, leading to Balls cracking Tanaka with a
remarkably hard chair shot for the pin.

Winner: Balls MahoneyRating: 6 / 10

Before the WWE championship match, Eugene hit the ring and reminded
everyone that he was the nephew of Eric Bischoff, which ensured that the
already-sceptical crowd were even more passionate against him. The Sandman
soon interrupted Eugene's shenanigans, however, cracking him with the
Singapore cane several times across the head and back, causing the Raw
native to flee, much to everyone's delight.

Match #7, WWE Championship: Rob Van Dam vs John Cena ( c )

To no surprise whatsoever, John Cena was afforded an even more scolding
reaction than Jerry Lawler as he made his way to ringside for his title
defence against RVD. Hilariously, it took several minutes for the bell to
sound, as each time that Cena tried to throw his shirt into the crowd, the
fans continually threw it back. Furthermore, toilet paper was thrown into
the ring, and the fans engaged in a fantastically loud chant of "You can't
wrestle!"

Seemingly wishing to dispel those thoughts, Cena began the bout with a
fisherman suplex, which grabbed a near fall. But as the action spilled to
the outside, it was Van Dam who took the advantage with a superb moonsault
press from the ring steps, followed up with a twisting legdrop from the
apron, as Cena lay prone across the guard rail.

Van Dam continued on the offence, placing a steel chair on the neck and
chest of Cena as he hit the Rolling Thunder, a move from which he only got a
two count. When he went for a similar chair-aided split legged moonsault,
however, Cena got the knees up and it was Van Dam who took the hit.
Continuing the chair-based theme, Cena hit a DDT on the steel and even sent
RVD flying into a chair with a slingshot. To say that the crowd were unhappy
when Cena went for the "You Can't See Me" fistdrop would be an
understatement, but at least they were spared the sight of a match-winning
F-U when RVD blocked the move.

RVD then set up a table in the corner of the ring, but as he turned to
grab Cena, the champion took him down into an STF. When Van Dam managed to
reach the ropes, Cena admonished referee Jon Finnegan for not stopping the
bout, shoving him in the process. When Finnegan shoved him back, Cena laid
him out with a clothesline, and went to the outside, bringing the steel
steps back into the ring, striking RVD in the head with them. The proceeding
cover brought out Smackdown referee Nick Patrick to do the honours, but Van
Dam kicked out at two.

Disposing of the challenger over the top rope, Cena turned around into a
spear from Edge, clad in a motorcycle helmet. Edge also knocked out Patrick,
so that when RVD hit Cena with a Frog Splash, there was no-one to make the
count, until Heyman ran to the ring and counted down the champion for the
three.

After the decision, the ECW locker room poured into the ring to give Van
Dam a prolonged championship celebration, although there will no doubt be
those who question the victory, given that it was Heyman who counted the
pinfall.

Winner -- Rob Van DamMatch rating -- 7.5 / 10

Although far from the spectacle that was last year's event, One Night
Stand 2006 was an entertaining showpiece which will have sent the ECW
faithful home happy, in the knowledge that their man now has control over
the WWE/ECW championship. We will have to wait until Monday -- or perhaps
Tuesday -- to find out if the win remains valid.

In his report on last year's show, SLAM! Wrestling's Chris Gramlich noted
that "ECW will never be the outlaw promotion that it once was, just a
reminder of glory days gone by. Maybe some things should be left in the
past."

Twelve months on, and with a new and bold venture immediately ahead, the
question of whether the McMahon version of ECW can ever work, still has yet
to be answered.